Pharaoh Overlord

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Pharaoh Overlord
After last years performance by Circle we just had to get their other project to the festival. This is pretty much a perfect cross between the hypnotic riff-repetition and rhythmic pulse of Circle and the super heavy doom vibe of Kyuss-worshippers Natas! Psychedelic metal of the highest and heaviest order.
www.circlefinland.com/cirphara.html

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KID 606

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Kid 606
KID606 aka Miguel Depedro, born 1979 in Venezuela and raised in California. Critically acclaimed releases (both legal and illegal) on Ipecac, Mille Plateaux, Fatcat, and  his own tigerbeat6 label as well as remixes for artists as disparate as Depeche Mode, The Locust, Peaches, and Super Furry Animals. Kid606 is an inspired, angry and iconoclastic artist more concerned with emotional content then popularity and unwilling to be pigeonholed in any vacant scene or soulless musical genre. It should be noted, however, that he is primarily inspired not by his electronic contemporaries, but by his love of the Industrial music, Death metal, and Industrial metal of the 1980s and 90s, particularly bands like Godflesh and Napalm Death.
http://www.myspace.com/kid606

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Qui

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QUI
The Los Angeles trio is Paul Christensen on drums, Matt Cronk on guitar, and David Yow. If you’re a Scratch Acid or Jesus Lizard fan, Qui sounds like a grungier sampling of both, with a little psychedelic stoner rock thrown in. Awesome riffs, pounding heavy beats and Yow snarling like he means it.
www.myspace.com/qui

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PCM

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PCM
PCM are Neil Harvey and Nik Wells and since their inception in 1990 have been mainstays of the Birmingham music scene, they deliver an uncompromisingly dark and aggressive take on drum and bass that is all their own, while still managing to instill a huge amount of dancefloor friendly breaks through the brutality of their music, this is a chance to see them in their most favourite environment, a dark, sweaty venue, late at night where they don’t have to take any prisoners.
http://www.myspace.com/p_c_m

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Shady Bard

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Shady Bard
Their line up is a miniature indie orchestra of pianos, guitars, casio tones, violin, cello, French horn and samples. The result is beautiful, frail torchlight melodies; broken and melancholy, this is hauntingly mysterious and rich. The songs take on a life of their own and you get completely enveloped in Shady Bards world.
www.myspace.com/shadybard

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Monarch

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Monarch
MONARCH! unleash a slow motion avalanche of impossibly glacial, blackened sludge and hypnotic feedback, each song a series of epic tarpit riffage stretched out eternally over lumbering drums and the cavernous rumble of speaker cabinets. Over these yawning expanses of black void appears the demonic, throat-shredding shrieks and ghostly singing of Emilie, whose petite appearance belies one of the harshest throats in the underground Doom spectrum.
http://www.myspace.com/monarchuberalles

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Shit & Shine

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Shit and Shine
They’re a real take-no-prisoners noise trip to a verrrry darrrkkk place. The music is unrelenting, a deranged stew of the Strangulated Beatoffs, early Surfers, Skullflower, PiL, Melvins and the tribal drummer parts of the Boredoms. It’s a glorious din, which startles, hypnotises and infuriates.
www.myspace.com/toddranch

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Deadsunrising

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Deadsunrising
For one night only Deadsunrising will be reforming in honour of Supersonics fifth edition, having opened the very first festival in 2003 they are back from the depths of West Bromwich, to toy with your preconceptions of how a 21st century metal band should sound. There is no safe haven once DSR have kicked in, with vocalists and guitarists spreading across the venue like bacteria, with scant regard for personal well-being.
http://www.myspace.com/deadsunrising

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Strings Of Consciousness

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Strings Of Consciousness
A constant flow of words and ideas giving birth to new texts; this is what the group is looking for on stage. It all starts from a much rehearsed and tightly woven musical soundtrack then it gradually evolves, moves then frays to end up in unfamiliar regions. A direct threat which is inviting each musician to conscientiously listen to the other members, to look at them, then play for and with one another, free from any restraints.
www.myspace.com/stringsofconsciousness

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Wolf Eyes

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Wolf Eyes –
Featuring Mike Connelly of noise kin Hair Police, he moved up to Michigan at the end of 2004 and has been jamming with Olson and Young in various projects, leading up to his introduction into Wolf Eyes. The band’s recent shows have been a return to a much more primitive and raw approach to the bands own version of Armageddon (which includes brews and Negative Approach’s “Ready to Fight” on repeat
http://www.myspace.com/therealwolfeyes
 

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Sunn 0)))

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Sunn 0)))
This is the project of Stephen O’ Malley (Khanate/Burning Witch) and founder of Southern Lord Records Greg Anderson (Goatsnake). Formed in memory of the cult drone-riff pioneers EARTH their theatrical performances create trance like soundscapes that are intricate, dense and filled with the heaviest bottom end you will ever hear. In collaboration with Attila of Mayhem and Justin Broadrick of Godflesh/Jesu for this performance.
www.ideologic.org

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About

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METAL – A symposium to celebrate and explore the West Midlands musical heritage.

Probably the most maligned musical genre of all time. The term itself
seems to have developed as a critical putdown of the sound and the
players making it. Loud, brash, unapologetic, energetic and
unconcerned with subtlety, taste and gentility. Yet a genre which over
its forty-year history has steadily crept its way into the mainstream,
securing worldwide domination and branching off into myriad
labyrinthine offshoots along its merry way.

It is no coincidence that many of these subgenres, and indeed, most
would argue the actual genesis itself, developed here in the Black
Country of the Midlands. It is not a unique phenomenon that youth
culture springs forth from working class industrial areas (the birth
of everything from the Blues and Country to Hip Hop came from the
fields, factories and streets), but the particular character cited by
the pioneers of Metal in the Midlands seems to run parallel to the
conditions and heritage of this distinct area – its talk of grimness
and social depravation an echo of the images painted by Dickens et al
in the nineteenth century. The history and environment providing the
backbone for not only the mood of the music, but the impetus to play
it in the first place.

In this symposium we hope to bring you a little of this rich local
history with speakers who were actually hands-on involved in its birth
and development. We also hope to put these developments into a wider
context, showing how the symbols, mood and substance of Metal have
filtered out and spread their influence over a much wider area, taking
root in everything from modern art through to commercial enterprise,
marketing and advertising. With such a vast topic at hand, we will not
be presenting a definitive series of lectures, but will try to cover
as much ground as possible with all the speakers before opening up the
debate to the audience to participate.

As far as we know, this is the first event of its kind, dedicated to
this particularly rich vein of local history and culture. And we
sincerely hope it won’t be the last…

Tony Sylvester

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Kling Klang

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Kling Klang –
Kling Klang are a five piece kraut-punk band from Liverpool, consisting of four synth players and a drummer. Formed in mid 1999, as a 3 piece using only cheap synths and old drum machines. Since then they have used every show and release as a way to explore new dynamic ways of presenting their unique sound.
http://www.myspace.com/superposition

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Tunng

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Tunng
A perfect mixture of skewed electronica and pastoral English Folk music. If the pub in the Wicker man needed an in house band they would call Tunng, singing you a sweet melody whilst slipping a poison in your drink, they are the sound of a mermaid singing to you, only to bring you into a pit of darkness and despair. Compellingly beautiful songs with an underlying sense of dread.
www.myspace.com/thisistunng

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Speakers

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Jim Simpson
Birmingham-based Big Bear, so called after the nickname given to Simpson by legendary DJ, John Peel, runs one of the oldest independent labels in the UK, specialising in jazz, blues and swing artists, although it has also been successfulin other music genres. Jim is the unsung hero of Heavy Metal, he ran the progressive club Henry’s Blueshouse where he inspired Robert Plant, Jon Bonham, Judas Priest and a plethora of others all of whom came see the legendary American Blues artists that Simpson programmed back in the day. He managed Sabbath for their first three albums, including the seminal ‘Black Sabbath’ album, then Paranoid and Master of Reality.
In 1984 Big Bear launched Birmingham’s jazz festival.  Now one of the largest standing arts events in Birmingham.

Edwin Pouncey
aka Savage Pencil
Born in Leeds, England 1951. left after 20 years to move to Colchester,
Essex, where he studied graphic design etc at Colchester School Of Art. Four years later he moved to London to attend the Royal College Of Art. Whilst there he started drawing the Rock ‘N’ Roll Zoo strip for Sounds magazine. After graduating from Royal College Edwin spent 7 months in Pennsylvania, USA teaching graphic design at Penn State University.

Returning to London he worked full time for Sounds magazine as designer, sub editor and illustrator for six years and is now a freelance writer/illustrator. Freelance work has included NME, Kerrang, Loaded, Top, Men’s World, Frieze, Juxtapoz, Mojo, Bizarre and is a regular contributor to The Wire.
Edwin continues to live in South London. Activities include: Drawing, etching, writing, playing “Noise” guitar, collecting records, reading lists and watching TV.

Mark Titchner
Turner Prize nominee in 2006, Titchners art explores the tensions between the different belief systems that inform society, be they religious, scientific or political. He sites the music of Napalm Death as distinctly influential in his work. Titchner will talk about the appeal of ‘abrasive music’ and describe his interest in how bands, such as Napalm Death, are able to use the voice as an instrument and push the boundaries of language. He sees a vivid resemblance between the style of Napalm Death’s music and what he depicts within his art.

Nicholas Bullen
 (b/1968) is a musician and sound artist whose work explores approaches at the extremes of sound. In his twenty-five year history as a musician (as a founder member of Napalm Death – creators of the ‘Grindcore’ genre – and Scorn), he has appeared on numerous recordings and performed extensively across the globe.

He maintains a number of ongoing musical projects including the electronic group Black Galaxy and the Monium label. His work in the field of sound art has included installations, sound design for artists radio, writing on the use of the voice in music and art, a tour of cinemas producing improvised
sound responses to key pieces of ‘experimental’ cinema, and lectures at art galleries including Tate Britain.
www.monium.org.uk

Tony Sylvester
A human encyclopaedia of musical fact and anecdote, currently employed by Southern Records as label manger and head of press. He also co-owns the record label Aurora Borealis, who have been pushing the envelope with challenging sounds from the frayed edges of the underground.
www.aurora-b.com

Extended panel of Special guests:
Karl Willets  – Bolt Thrower
Dave Cochrane – Head Of David, Ice, Courtesy Group
John Pickering – Doom (Kerrang radio presenter)
Barney Greenway – Napalm Death

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Otto Von Schirach

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Otto Von Schirach –
Take Electro Bass Noise, Gore Grind, IDM Glitch, Calliope, Breakcore Gabber Jungle, Gangsta Rap, mix them all together and what you get? Otto Von Schirach of course!
Otto Von Schirach (half Cuban / half German) was born in 1978 in the swamp infested refugee world of Little Havana Miami. As a child his grandmother practiced Santeria and White Magic, which opened his eyes to the strange and bizarre. Otto grew up listening to Miami Bass, Gore Grind, Gangsta Rap and Afro Cuban Noise. In 1995 Otto bought his first drum machine from a crack-head just 2 blocks from his mom’s house. Right away he recognized his passion for grimy diamond soaked kick drums through distorted fuzz muck.
http://www.ottovonschirach.com/

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Voice Of The Seven Woods

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Voice Of The Seven Woods
Rick Tomlinson has enlisted the skills of a drummer in a quest to create the authentic sound typified by the likes of Terry Cox in Pentangle with an added rhythmic influence of Turkish Psychedelic bands first heard in the mid 70’s. Drummer, ‘Chris Walmsley’ who has recorded with forward thinking groups like Broadcast is the perfect reactionary accompaniment to Rick’s sporadic flirtations with time and tempo through baroque-jazz-rock, acid folk and South Eastern psychedelia.
www.myspace.com/voiceofthesevenwoods

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